I’m on a side quest to read as many advent calendar books this season. I dont know why lol. I currently have:

-A Heart for Christmas by Sophie Jomain (popular but I heard it sucks) -Christmas Eve Love Story by Ginny Baird (also saw this made its rounds) -Whims of the Wicked by Rebecca Grey -25 Days by Per Jacobsen -Xmas Break by J.E. Rowney -Sealed with a Yuletide Kiss by Sophie Barnes (it’s short stories, which I won’t mind)

Any more before I go on? There’s probably more that I don’t know of.

Is it just me, or do you avoid books set in your city?

I was born and raised by Seattle. I don't know why it is, but books set in Washington or Seattle I avoid.

Is there any reason why??? Not really. (Side tangent TV shows or movies set in the state kind of bug me though because it REALLY shows they've never been there EVER Cough Cough Death Note live action (accept Supernatural and X files))

I read Remarkably Bright Creatures recently and it was set in Washington and I enjoyed how the author wrote the city as it's own character. But that was the only book I have read set in my city.

How about you? Or do you enjoy books more if they are setbin your city? Just curiosity plaguing me again.

With Christmas not too far off and me putting aside the books I'm planning to take with me when visiting family, I was reminded of last years holidays which were especially fun because one relative went on and on about how fantasy and sci-fi aren't real literature. This started when another relative gifted me some of Sally Rooney's books so I'd have "something real to read for a change" - they meant it jokingly but it nevertheless started a rant that continued over several days (the entire time we shared a house for the holidays).

I mostly ignored the ranting person, we don't really get along anyways, but we will be sharing a house again this year for a couple of days and I can already feel a continuation of the rant coming and I'm wondering if there's some way to convince them that books written by someone other than Kafka or Murakami can be impactful and that just because something is fantasy or sci-fi doesn't mean it's entirely divorced from reality.

Any of you ever deal with similar situations? How did you handle them? Did you ignore them or argue with them? What arguments did you use?

EDIT: Thanks to all you lovely people! All your kind (and petty) words have reminded me that this person just isn't worth my energy. So while I'll probably try to be nice, I'll most likely just go back to ignoring them and, if that doesn't work, I now have some very fun and petty ideas about what to do next 😄

Also thank you for wishing me nice holidays despite having to be around someone like that. Luckily, they will only be there for a few days and I'll have lots of time before and after to enjoy my holidays - with tons of "bad" books, good food and far better company. I hope you all also have lovely holidays 😘

hi! i just wasn’t sure if anyone knew why there are only four books this winter readalong? my app also shows that to get the sparkly badge you have to read “all 5” but i only see 4. wasn’t sure if it was a bug on my end or not and wanted to ask just to make sure i wasn’t missing anything!

“Once upon a time, the year 2000 to be precise” 😂 loved that opening

I read a lot of epic fantasy and there are a lot of "alternative to curse words" which I assume is to get the point across without dropping the f bomb all the time and lose and possibly lose marketability to some audiences.

So I was wondering what some of people's favorite alternative curses are? Some of mine are...

Mother's milk (wheel of time) Rust and ruin (cosmere) Tigers tits (poppy seed war)

Oh my godfathers pb buddies! I just finished sorting through the largest book donation in the history of my street library! Eleven (11!) boxes guys & I'm talking proper packing boxes, not just banana boxes! I need a cuppa & a lie down after that stint! 😂🤣😂

How do you normally decide or pick on books to read/buy? Example, do you randomly walk to a book store and just pick random books and read their synopsis? Or do you have a list ready and just stick on that? 🤔